


Borrowing Problems from the Future

by sunkelles



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan
Genre: Cheese, Floor Nineteen and Samirah all appear, Fluff, Genderfluid Character, Getting Together, Hotel Valhalla, Other, Samirah is a good friend and a good sister, Shovel talks, Sibling Relationship, cheese everywhere, mentions at least because i'm sunkelles and that's my thing, we call him mango cheese do you expect anything less than cheesy chessy fic?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-02
Packaged: 2019-02-09 12:03:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887484
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: On Magnus's birthday, the gang goes to an art gallery hosted by Odin with artists from the past, present and future.





	Borrowing Problems from the Future

**Author's Note:**

> this fic was born when i realized that the structure of fierrochase as a ship name is just like westallen. i also wanted to remedy the ending of the ship of the dead in regards to the relationship, so here's my take on it.
> 
> i also named this fic after an episode of the flash which it has literally nothing to do with. the westallen inspiration definitely doesn't come from that episode. the title just worked really well

Einherjar don’t celebrate birthdays. According to T.J. it’s because it would get tedious. Halfborn says it’s because they don’t care. Mallory says that it’s because they don’t want to feel old. Magnus thinks that’s most likely the reason. If they were going by birthdays, Mallory would be fifty nine. T.J would be almost two hundred. Magnus doesn’t have a clue how old Halfborn would be, but it would be really fucking old. 

So, when his birthday approaches, Magnus doesn’t say anything. It’s not like sixteen will actually be any different than seventeen. He has eternal youth now- at least until Ragnarok actually comes and they all die in glorious battle. It’s really confusing to both be immortal and fated to die at a certain time. Magnus doesn’t know how Halfborn and the rest of the old timers have dealt with it for this long. 

Probably not by thinking about the passage of time, which means not making a big deal out of their birthdays. Magnus decides to follow their lead and not even mention his birthday. It’s not like it matters to anyone but him. 

When he wakes up on the morning of his birthday, there’s a flyer sitting on his bedside table. That happens sometimes, whenever there’s something out of the ordinary happening at the hotel. They have celebrations for all of the major world holidays, and all the ones that long dead einherjar celebrated while they were alive. 

This, however, doesn’t seem to fall under that category. The flier is a deep purple, and the words are all written in a soft, curving font. 

 

_**The Timeless Gallery** _

_Odin’s premier artists from the past, present and future. Open one day only in Hotel Valhalla, all day today._

 

Magnus isn’t super into art galleries. He dropped by the Boston Fine Art Gallery exactly once because he heard admission was free, and only stuck around twenty minutes because he was bored and the other patrons were glaring holes into his back. One really fun (read: awful) thing about being homeless? No matter how free and public the space is, if you exist there while obviously homeless, people will treat you like shit. They’ll probably do it in that “subtle” way they think is okay, but it won’t make any difference, really. They’ll still treat you like shit. At least now with the Chase Space, kids like him and Alex have a place to come where that won’t happen to them. 

Magnus pushes the thought aside and tries to remember what got him off on that tangent to begin with. Oh yeah, it was the art exhibition here at the Hotel Valhalla. Magnus might not like art that much, but he knows someone that does. He also knows a couple people who might tag along so that he doesn’t have to stand around, pretending to be enthralled by the art while Alex actually stands around being enthralled by the art. 

He decides to ask every member of their little group. He goes to Mallory’s room first. Both Mallory and Halfborn are already up and dressed by the time he gets there, and Magnus honestly can’t tell if that’s because they both spent the night there or because they got up early to play Call of Duty. He asks if they want to go to the art gallery, and fully expects a resounding no. That’s what he gets from Halfborn. Mallory shits him down, though. 

“COD can wait,” Mallory says. 

“But-” 

“COD can wait,” she says firmly. Then, they go to get T.J. Halfborn stops in front of Alex’s door on the way there. 

“I was gonna get T.J. next.” 

“Shouldn’t we get your Alex-friend first?” Alex chooses that exact moment to open the door. Luckily, what Halfborn is saying isn’t half as bad as what it could have been a few months ago. They’ve finally broke Halfborn of calling Alex what basically amounts to a transphobic slur, but now he won’t use pronouns for her at all. Alex-friend has become Halfborn’s go to for teasing them about dating, and Alex hates it. Magnus, however, is completely okay with having an Alex-friend.    
  
More than okay, really. Ecstatic might be the proper word. But Alex isn’t ready to make anything official, so Magnus can deal with it. 

“Just  _ friend _ ,” Alex says firmly, “but the gender you’re looking for is girl.” 

“What are you doing, anyway?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest, “we don’t normally get the band together this early in the morning.” 

“It’s ten o’clock,” Mallory says. 

“Like I said, early in the morning.” Instead of letting the early bird and the night owl duke it out over what constitutes early in the morning, Magnus decides to just cut to the chase. 

“We’re going to an art gallery this morning,” he says. 

“An art gallery?” Alex asks, “you should have started with that. I have to go get dressed.” 

“You aren’t?” She’s wearing a pair of bright pink sweat pants and a black v-neck. The only thing that she’s missing is shoes, which with the outfit she’s wearing, would probably be bright green to make up for the complete lack of green in the ensemble. 

“These are pajamas, Maggie. I can’t go out in these. It would ruin my reputation.” Magnus thinks that she looks fine, but then again, Magnus would probably think she looks perfect in anything she put on. She slams the door behind her, and two minutes later she comes out in a truly Alex ensemble. Now she’s wearing lime green converse, pink skinny jeans, possibly the same black v-neck as before, a green plaid flannel, and her signature pink sunglasses. 

“ _ Now  _ I’m ready,” she says. Then they pick up T.J. who’s nearly as excited to visit an art gallery as Alex, and Samirah, who came in for Valkyrie training today but is more than willing to go into the gallery with them to avoid that. They make their way to the hotel ballroom to see the gallery. 

A banner with “The Timeless Gallery” written in golden letters is sprawled across the doorway to the ballroom. Mallory’s eyebrows knit together. 

“What does that mean?” she asks. 

“It’s a gallery. That’s timeless,” Halfborn says. Mallory punches him in the arm. 

“The flyer said that it’s from Odin’s favorite artists: past, present and future,” Magnus says. 

“How does that work?” Mallory asks, turning to Samirah for an answer. 

“We didn’t cover this in Valkyrie 101,” Samirah says. Alex rolls her eyes. 

“If you all want to debate the logistics of this, you can go ahead and do that. I’m gonna go look inside.” Then she grazes past them. No one else moves for a solid thirty seconds. 

“Is anyone gonna move?” Magnus asks. No one responds quickly. 

“Well,  _ I’m _ following her.” Halfborn smirks. 

“I think you’ll be following Alex the rest of your life, mate.” Magnus feels himself blush, and tries not to think too deeply about the comment as he walks into the gallery. The first painting that he sees nearly takes his breath away. It’s an enormous landscape painting of a sunrise over rolling, green hills. 

“Wow,” Magnus says. Earlier, he thought that he’d have to stand around awkwardly while Alex fawned over the art. Apparently, he’s the one doing the fawning. 

“That looks like home,” Halfborn says, his voice softer than Magnus has ever heard it. 

“This is going to be really good,” T. J. says, walking up beside him with a big grin. And Magnus thinks T.J. must be right. If the rest of this gallery is anything like that first painting, it  _ will  _ be good. Apparently, being one of Odin’s favorite artists does mean something. 

Once Magnus finally catches his breath, he starts to wander around the room. The gallery isn’t just paintings. There are puppets, dolls, bowls, tapestries, photography, digital art, statues, intricate carvings, musical instruments, embroidery, quilting, and all sorts of physical arts that Magnus doesn’t have a name for. 

The art seems to have come from cultures from all over the world, which is pretty cool. Magnus just hopes that the artists are being properly compensated while their art is on display. 

Magnus wanders deeper into the hodgepodge of different styles of art from different cultures, and finally finds Alex. She’s standing intently in front of a statue, rubbing her chin the way that people are supposed to when they intently examine art.

Magnus walks up beside her to get a closer look. He notices that this isn’t just any statue. It’s lime green and it looks startlingly like Pottery Barn. 

“That’s a ceramic warrior,” Magnus says. 

“No shit Sherlock.” 

“It looks like something you’d make,” he says. Then Alex turns her head towards him, and she sends him a soft smile. Alex normally smirks, so a smile like that is a rare sight.

“I’m not nearly at that level,” she says, “do you see the detail on the belt?” She points so that she’s sure he’ll look. 

“On the eyes?” Then she shakes her head. “My hand isn’t nearly that steady yet.” 

“You could ask the artist for some advice. They might be able to help you get there,” Magnus suggests. 

“This is a gallery from the past, present, and future. They might be dead already, or they might not have been born yet.” 

“We’re dead,” Magnus points out. 

“I mean _ dead _ dead, Maggie.”  

“They might still be alive. We could check and see?” 

“If you want to,” Alex says. She doesn’t sound terribly excited by the prospect, but Magnus won’t let that stop him. If the artist is accessible, Magnus thinks she would want to know. He walks up to the artwork so that he can get a closer look. There’s a little white label on it with black lettering where he assumes the title and the artist are. 

“They’re named Green Bean,” Magnus calls out, and he laughs. This is one of those future works, if the (2024) beside the name is any indication. 

“Don’t laugh at their name,” Alex scolds. Magnus tries to stifle his giggles. If Green Bean were sentient like Pottery Barn was, he’s sure that Green Bean could kick his ass. He thinks about that to make himself stop laughing. Then, he finally looks at the artist’s name. 

“Hey, this artist’s name is Alex too,” Magnus says, then he reads the rest of the line, “Alex Fierro-Chase.” Well, that’s weird. 

“What did you say?” she asks. She doesn’t sound amused. 

“Alex Fierro-Chase,” Magnus says. He looks a little closer at the label. It reads Alex Fierro-Chase (b. 1999). That’s really weird. He was born in 2000, and he remembers  _ his  _ Alex Fierro saying she’s a little bit older than he is. She walks up beside him, glaring. Then she checks the label herself. 

“What?” She’s looking at the label in absolute shock and a little bit of horror. 

“It’s weird, right?” Magnus asks, “what a coincidence.” Alex laughs, but it’s not a laugh that sounds like she thinks anything is funny. It’s not even the laugh that she gets when she’s bitter about something. This laugh has a different edge to it, something hysterical and urgent. 

“That’s not,” she says, and she doesn’t finish the thought, “I mean- I wouldn’t-” 

“You wouldn’t what?” Magnus asks. He feels his eyebrows knit together in confusion. He doesn’t even know what Alex is so worked up about. It’s just a cool artist with a similar style and name. Alex doesn’t even look at him as she brushes past him. 

“I gotta go,” she finally says as she rushes out of the gallery. 

Oh. Then Magnus finally gets it. The year Alex was born. The art she does. Her name plus his.  _ Alex  _ made this in the future. This art that she thought was so much above her level? She’s going to make it. Odin is going to like it so well that he puts it in a gallery full of his favorite art. 

And her last name’s going to be Fierro-Chase, probably, because they get married. The thought rushes over him like a warm wave. Magnus has never been the smartest guy, but he sure is the most sentimental. Fuck, he really likes the idea of being married to Alex. 

But judging by the way that Alex reacted to the name written on that plaque, Magnus doesn’t think she feels the same way. He feels a dark, creeping sense of doubt settle over him. Does Alex even really like him? He’s never gotten a straight answer on that. The closest thing that he’s ever gotten is this, here, with their last names both written behind her first one. She took one look at that and ran away. 

Magnus suddenly feels very out of place in front of this statue. He suddenly feels very out of place standing in this art gallery at all. He works his way through the room and towards the exit. Then he runs into Samirah, and she sends him a concerned look. 

“Is Alex okay?” Samirah asks. Magnus knows that Alex trusts Samirah as much or more than he does, but he doesn’t even consider telling her what happened. It’s private information. Alex doesn’t want it to be true, let alone for the info to spread. 

“It’s nothing,” Magnus says. Then she looks even more concerned. 

“Are  _ you _ okay?” 

“I’m fine.” Magnus isn’t a good liar on the best of days, and this is not one of the best of days. He’s not sure that line would have fooled anyone, especially not someone who knows him as well as Samirah does. Samirah just sends him a disappointed look. 

“I’m gonna go talk to Alex,” he assures her. Samirah nods. 

“Good,” she says, “whatever this is, I’m sure you two can work it out.” 

“And if we don’t?” 

“I  _ would  _ give you the shovel talk,” Samirah says, turning slightly to show off her enormous ax, “but I’m not sure how well that would work. Even if I killed you, you’d just come right back.” She grins at the end of that, so Magnus is pretty sure that she’s joking. 

God- please let her be joking. Magnus can’t always tell with her though, or with Alex. They’re surprisingly alike that way, especially when the joke’s on him. Apparently, siblings of a feather joke together. 

“Alright,” Magnus says. He doesn’t really know how to feel about that talk either. Sometimes he wishes that his best friend wasn’t his crush’s sister. It would make his life a whole lot easier. 

“I’m gonna go talk to her,” he says, gesturing towards the exit. 

“You do that,” Samirah says, grinning slightly. Yeah, he thinks that’s a good sign. At least, as good of a sign as he’s going to get today. Today hasn’t been a great day, despite it being his birthday. But then again, nobody says “sweet seventeen”. Or sweet “just continuing to be sixteen forever because you’re an undying, unaging warrior fated to die at the end of the world”.

None of those things are sweet, especially on top of whatever relationship issues he has going on right now. He just feels so embarrassed and kind of angry and a little bitter, but mainly he’s just confused. He doesn’t really know what to make of Alex’s reaction, and he’s not really prepared to confront her about it either. 

He’s still not ready by the time that he gets to her room, but ready or not, he has to do it. Mainly because Alex opens her door the moment that he gets there. 

“Hey,” he says. 

“Hey,” she says, somehow more eloquently. She’s holding a cup of tea in a Sailor Neptune mug. 

“Do you want some?” she asks, incredibly nonchalantly for someone who just had a freakout about the possibility of being married to him, “I made a whole pot.” 

“Sure,” Magnus says, stumbling awkwardly into the familiar room which smells strongly of herbal tea. When they get to the kitchenette she pours his tea into a matching Sailor Uranus mug. He takes a sip as he tries to figure out what to say. The tea is too bitter for his taste, but he’s not about to ask Alex for some sugar. Under normal circumstances, she’d just tease him. But these aren’t normal circumstances and he’s not really sure what would happen. He’s not really sure of anything at the moment. 

“So,” he says, “about the art gallery.” 

“It was really cool,” Alex says, “there were some really nice pieces.” Wow. She’s really just going to ignore this? 

“Yeah,” Magnus says, his tone getting a little snarkier, “my favorite was Green Bean.” 

“I preferred The Two Fridas,” Alex says, aggressively avoiding the topic. 

“You’re really not going to talk about this?” Magnus asks, holding his mug a little tighter. 

“What’s there to talk about?” 

“Green Bean, sculpted in 2024.” 

“Maggie-” 

“Look, the Fierro-Chase thing doesn’t have to mean we get married.” He gets more and more nervous the further into the sentence that he gets. His voice gets higher and faster along with it. 

“I mean- maybe it doesn’t? We aren’t even really dating, right? It doesn’t mean anything. It could be some other Chase,” He doesn’t want it to be another Chase, but if Alex wants that then he’ll take what he get. He just wants to know whether this almost relationship is going anywhere or not. Mainly, he just wants to know if Alex doesn’t  _ want  _ it to go anywhere. If Alex confirms that today, then he’ll give up. 

“If you want it to be another Chase, it could be.” Alex sighs as she puts her head in her right hand. Then she rubs her forehead. 

“I don’t want it to be some other Chase,” she admits. Magnus knows that’s what he wanted to hear. That’s why he doesn’t really believe his ears. 

“You don’t?” 

“I don’t,” she says plainly. He frowns. 

“You have a funny way of showing it.” Then the second hand goes up to her face, and she digs her fingers into her eyebrows, rubbing in circles. Then she drops her hands together, and holds them near her lap. She sighs. 

“Look, if you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not-” air quotes “-great-” end air quotes “-with relationships. Or sharing. Or emotions in general.” He thinks that’s getting closer to something that he’d want to hear. 

“What do you mean?” he asks cautiously. 

“I don’t like feeling vulnerable, Magnus,” she says. That catches him off guard. It’s so earnest, and she didn’t even use a nickname. She used his  _ real  _ name, which she almost never does. She pauses, and moves one of her hands absently to her garotte. She starts fiddling with it, and keeps fiddling with it when she looks back at him, meeting his eyes. 

“You make me feel… vulnerable.” 

“What?” he asks. He doesn’t know what that means. Is it good? She glares. 

“Because I like you,” she says, and she sounds very angry about it, “dumbass!” Maybe his heart shouldn’t race when she yells at him about liking him and then calls him a dumbass, but it does. It feels like a whole flock of birds just took off in his chest. It eases every emotion but confusion. 

“Then, why did you react like that when you realized?” Magnus asks. He was so excited when he finally realized what all the puzzle pieces meant. 

“I was really excited, okay? And I - I didn’t  _ want  _ to be. We aren’t even dating yet cause I’m scared of commitment. And marriage? That’s a fuckton commitment and, and I’m  _ really  _ bad with commitment and-  _ Dios _ \- I don’t even believe in marriage! I think that it’s an outdated construct! And- and it’s heterosexist and ridiculous and- ugh.” There’s way too much in that for Magnus to try to address right now, and he’s almost certain that Alex wouldn’t want him to. 

Instead he says, “Marriage isn’t all bad. The tax benefits are nice.” Alex laughs. 

“I’m calling it,” she says, “We get hitched for the tax benefits.” There aren’t any taxes in Valhalla, and there aren’t any tax benefits either. But it’s a funny idea and it’s far easier than delving into whatever emotions come with them actually getting married. They stand there in silence a little while, just leaning against the cabinets and drinking their now lukewarm tea. 

“You know what I don’t get?” Alex says. 

“What?” 

“Why we went with Fierro-Chase.  _ Fierro-Chase? _ Really? That’s not what I would have gone with.” 

“I think it sounds nice,” Magnus says defensively, “at least, nicer than Chase-Fierro.” He can’t imagine  _ either  _ of them being Chase-Fierro. Magnus Chase-Fierro. Alex Chase-Fierro. It just doesn’t flow right. Not the way that Alex Fierro-Chase does. Or even Magnus Fierro-Chase. 

God, he should probably stop mentally hyphenating their names right in front of her. It’s embarrassing enough when he does it alone in his notebook. 

“I think it would be our best option,” Magnus says. Because apparently, talking about what they would do about last names in the event of  _ marriage  _ is acceptable now. Earlier this morning, Magnus couldn’t even definitively call Alex his girlfriend. Now they’re talking about possible last name combos in the event of marriage like it’s normal conversation. Sometimes birthday wishes really do come true. 

“I don’t know,” Alex says, and she slides right up beside him, “I think we can do one better.” 

“And what’s that?” Magnus asks. 

“Magnus Fierro has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?” Magnus blushes immediately and brightly at that. He hopes that she can’t somehow  _ sense  _ that he’s doodled that in his notebook more than once. He forces himself not to look away, and instead turns to face her. He tries to smirk, too. He doesn’t really know if he succeeds at that one. 

“How about just  _ boyfriend _ for now,” Magnus says. He tries to make it sound flirty and confident like Alex somehow always manages too. Alex grins. She puts a hand on each of his shoulders, then slides in close to him. He finds himself pinned to the cabinet. 

“You know,” she says, “right now, boyfriend sounds just perfect.” Then, she leans in for a kiss. It’s far from their first, but it’s their first as an official couple. He leans in, and kisses back. Magnus Chase might be dead, but this is still his best birthday ever. 

**Author's Note:**

> so the westallen inspiration was from the scene where barry sees a headline from the future (the year 2024) written by iris west-allen and realizes that means that he's going to marry iris in the future. 
> 
> the birthday thing was going to be more important when i drafted this story in my head, but i also think that it's nice to leave it vague. was this orchestrated by the gods? who knows? who cares? magnus sure had a happy birthday :)


End file.
